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A Hilliard couple abruptly ended their mortgage fraud trial in federal court late yesterday by
pleading guilty to conspiracy charges.

Title agent Deborah L. Kistner and her husband, Mark A. Kistner, decided not to fight the
multiple charges against them after three days of prosecution testimony in U.S. District Court in
Columbus.

Mrs. Kistner pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, three counts
of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of bank fraud in a hearing last night.

Mr. Kistner pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Other
charges against the couple are expected to be dropped as part of plea agreements.

The couple’s trial before a jury started Monday and had been expected to last two weeks.
Numerous witnesses who already have pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud testified this week.

After yesterday’s morning court session, attorneys for the couple told Judge Gregory L. Frost
that their clients wanted to discuss a plea deal.

The judge released the jurors for the day and attorneys for both side hammered out
agreements. Each defendant pleaded guilty last night in front of Frost.

The Kistners were indicted by a federal grand jury in 2011 and charged with helping put
together real-estate deals that defrauded lenders out of $7 million.

The deals, made with various real-estate agents and mortgage brokers, included illegal cash
kickbacks to buyers and to themselves and the sales and purchases of homes with hugely inflated
appraisal values.

Mrs. Kistner owned Premiere Title and Coast to Coast Title in Hilliard. The conspiracy
operated between April 2006 and April 2008 in both central Ohio and Florida.

The Internal Revenue Service and the FBI investigated the Kistners as part of a
mortgage-fraud task force.